Croatian

A week has passed since college basketball's spring signing date, and Northwestern still does not have a signature from center Alex Olah. But sources, including Olah's coach at Indiana's Traders Point Christian Academy, say not to fear. Dave Jamerson told the Tribune via text message that Olah's campus visit last weekend "went very well. He is working on the final details with his parents in Romania. " Even with the pending additions of Olah and Louisville transfer Jared Swopshire, the Wildcats have one scholarship to give.

The young Blue Ivy Carter shouldn't have any reason to defect from the U.S. (being the daughter of Jay-Z and Beyoncé ensures a pretty good chance of success Stateside). But should she ever go through a rebellious phase and want to get away from the rap and R&B game, she already has a second home base — the island of Hvar in Croatia. According to a story this morning on National Public Radio , officials in the popular resort town of Hvar, on an eponymous island off Dalmatia in the Adriatic Sea, have given Blue Ivy honorary citizenship.

Serb-dominated Yugoslav forces pounded Croatian defenses around the Adriatic resort of Dubrovnik on Thursday and captured a town just to the south in one of the heavier attacks of the four-month war.European Community observers said federal army and Croatian defense officials agreed to a truce in the Dubrovnik region that will take effect at 5 p.m.But Croatian National Guard commander Imra Agotic said in Zagreb that gunfire was continuing about an hour...

A 61-year-old Flagler County man admitted to deputies that he snorted cocaine before Croatians invaded his home, prompting him to open fire and flee to a neighbor's house. Peter Bauer of Palm Coast was holding a .38-caliber handgun and hiding between two vehicles in the driveway of a home on Peppercorn Lane when he was arrested this morning on a charge of armed burglary. There were no Croatians, said Debra Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Flagler County Sheriff's Office. Deputies were called after neighbors reported a man banging at their door and trying to open their sliding glass doors.

The Serb-led Yugoslav army pressed the civil war in breakaway Croatia on Saturday, moving close enough to the republic's capital to force a total blackout.The alert, the first of the war in Zagreb, emptied the streets after six distant but powerful explosions reverberated through the area. A total blackout was imposed in the city of 1 million.The all-clear was given an hour later. Street lights came on, and traffic began to move.The Croatian high command said the alert was caused by Soviet-made surface-to-surface missiles fired by the Yugoslav army at Croatian troops just southeast of Zagreb.

ZAGREB, Croatia - Croatian voters have driven home the message that they are ready for change in the post-Tudjman era but an inconclusive first-round election left two pro-Western rivals battling it out for the presidency. Centrist Stipe Mesic led in results announced early today with 42 percent of the vote, short of the absolute majority needed to succeed the late autocrat Franjo Tudjman. Mesic faces a runoff ballot on Feb. 7 against Social Liberal leader Drazen Budisa, who came in second with 28 percent of the vote.

BELGRADE, Serbia -- A former Croatian Serb paramilitary man suspected of taking part in the execution-style killings of 200 Croatian prisoners of war in 1991 has been arrested in Norway, Serbia's war-crimes prosecutors said Monday. Damir Sireta, 43, was detained in Norway after an international arrest warrant was issued for him, the Serbian war-crimes-prosecution office said.

An aide close to Croatia's president hinted strongly Sunday at the possibility of more war.''We are not asking for war, but I am telling you that we are ready, trained and - above all - determined to liberate every square foot of Croatian territory,'' Croatian Defense Minister Gojko Susak said.President Franjo Tudjman appears determined to evict United Nations peacekeepers and seems equally sure such action won't lead to more war. Most outsiders think he's wrong.Tudjman insists Croatia is committed to peaceful reintegration of the 27 percent of its territory now held by rebel Serbs.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- A U.N. court sentenced Milan Babic, a central political figure during the Balkan wars, to 13 years in prison Tuesday for inflaming an ethnic-cleansing campaign that killed hundreds of Croats and expelled tens of thousands from Croatia. In January, the court convicted Babic, 48, of one count of persecution for the campaign against non-Serbs in the self-proclaimed Croatian Republic of Krajina.

In what appeared to be conciliatory moves to secure a U.N. peacekeeping mission, the Serbian-led federal army began pulling out of two bases near Zagreb Friday, and Croatia's president conceded U.N. troops should be allowed to patrol his republic's war zones.Both gestures raised hopes that conditions might be created for foreign intervention to halt the Yugoslav civil war that has killed at least 7,000 people in five months.But the army convoys leaving the Croatian capital headed for new positions just inside the neighboring republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, from which authorities in Zagreb fear they could easily stage new assaults on Croatia.

Eleven people suspected of smuggling 174 kilos of cocaine from Columbia to Europe were arrested in an international police operation, Croatian media reported Thursday. Nine Croatians, one Serb and a Columbian were arrested in raids on the Caribbean island of Martinique and in the Dominican Republic, the reports said, citing police. It was the first major cocaine smuggling operation masterminded and carried out by Croats, Dinko Cvitan, the head of Croatian anti-drugs agency, was quoted as saying.

A week has passed since college basketball's spring signing date, and Northwestern still does not have a signature from center Alex Olah. But sources, including Olah's coach at Indiana's Traders Point Christian Academy, say not to fear. Dave Jamerson told the Tribune via text message that Olah's campus visit last weekend "went very well. He is working on the final details with his parents in Romania. " Even with the pending additions of Olah and Louisville transfer Jared Swopshire, the Wildcats have one scholarship to give.

ZAGREB, Croatia -- Croatian police say they have discovered an illegal-weapons factory and arrested 19 people who allegedly produced and smuggled weapons. But the head of Zagreb police, Marijan Tomurad, said Saturday that the group "has no relation with international terrorism." Tomurad said the group produced primarily "explosive boxes," to be activated by cell phones, to fill orders mainly from Sweden and to criminal groups in western Europe.

BELGRADE, Serbia -- A former Croatian Serb paramilitary man suspected of taking part in the execution-style killings of 200 Croatian prisoners of war in 1991 has been arrested in Norway, Serbia's war-crimes prosecutors said Monday. Damir Sireta, 43, was detained in Norway after an international arrest warrant was issued for him, the Serbian war-crimes-prosecution office said.

ZAGREB, Croatia -- Croatia's President Stipe Mesic, credited for moving this ex-Yugoslav country closer to the West, overwhelmingly won a second term Sunday in a runoff election, the state-run Electoral Commission said. Mesic, 70, won 66 percent of the vote, the state-run Electoral Commission said after nearly all votes were counted. His rival, the governing Conservative Party's minister, Jadranka Kosor, trailed with 34 percent.

ZAGREB, Croatia -- Croatia's President Stipe Mesic failed to win an outright first-round victory in the presidential election Sunday and will face a Cabinet minister in a runoff, nearly complete official results showed. Mesic had 49 percent of the votes -- less than 1 percent short of an outright majority that would have given him a first-round victory. Jadranka Kosor, a minister in the ruling conservative Croatian Democratic Union-led Cabinet, was trailing with 20.2 percent.

Fierce fighting continues in the republic, which has set Saturday as a deadline for the Yugoslav military to withdraw.Yugoslav army troops, tanks and warplanes pressed an all-out assault on militia forces in secessionist Croatia on Monday.The fiercest fighting was reported near the strategic northeast Croatian city of Vukovar, which has been under siege for several days by army troops and heavily armed members of an indigenous Serb guerrilla force that is seeking to wrest large areas of the republic from Croatian control.

Leaders of the rebel republic of Croatia walked out of a crisis meeting of Yugoslavia's top officials Thursday over a dispute with the army.They made clear that they disagreed sharply with military leaders at the meeting with the state presidency, Prime Minister Ante Markovic and presidents of the six Yugoslav republics.Any talks on the country's future should exclude the army, they said.Croatia, a non-Communist republic that has angered central leaders by threatening to secede, faces a showdown with the army after defying an order to detain its defense minister, who is alleged to have planned attacks on army personnel.

ZAGREB, Croatia -- A bomb toppled a statue of former Yugoslav dictator Josip Broz Tito in his hometown in northern Croatia on Monday. The Culture Ministry condemned the early-morning attack in the town of Kumrovec -- which also damaged nearby houses -- calling it a "barbaric act." No one took responsibility for the blast.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- A U.N. court sentenced Milan Babic, a central political figure during the Balkan wars, to 13 years in prison Tuesday for inflaming an ethnic-cleansing campaign that killed hundreds of Croats and expelled tens of thousands from Croatia. In January, the court convicted Babic, 48, of one count of persecution for the campaign against non-Serbs in the self-proclaimed Croatian Republic of Krajina.